Geography

'The study of geography is about more than just memorising places on a map. It's about understanding the complexity of our world, appreciating the diversity of cultures that exists across continents. And in the end, it's about using all that knowledge to help bridge divides and bring people together.' - Barack Obama

Geography at Aberford

Our Geography curriculum identifies the knowledge and skills that pupils are to learn. The knowledge in geography is organised into two forms: substantive knowledge and disciplinary knowledge. Substantive knowledge sets out the content that children will learn. We address this through:

Locational Knowledge
Place Knowledge
Human and Physical Geography
Geographical Skills and Fieldwork

Teaching equips pupils with knowledge about diverse place, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth's key human and physical processes. Our curriculum is designed to ensure that pupils' growing knowledge about the world helps them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between physical and human processes and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Geographical knowledge, skills and understanding provide the frameworks and approaches that explain how the Earth's features are shaped.

Disciplinary knowledge considers how Geographical Knowledge originates and is revised. It is through disciplinary knowledge that pupils learn the practices of Geographers. Map reading skills enhance children's disciplinary knowledge, equipping them with lifelong and practical skills that children will be able to apply in future learning, in the workplace and in everyday life.

Fieldwork

Fieldwork is recognised as an essential component of the practice of Geography and in mapped throughout the 12 units in each two year cycle of our rolling programme of study. Fieldwork is an essential part of Geographical study because it gives:

enjoyment and inspiration through memorable experiences
opportunities for developing practical group work and leadership skills
improved behaviours towards learning by increasing confidence and the ability to deal with risk and uncertainty
opportunities to acquire knowledge of the world through direct observation and to develop better understanding of the nature of Geographical Knowledge.

Trips and visits enhance our Geography curriculum by giving many opportunities for fieldwork experiences. However, our beautiful and rural school grounds are our very best tool for teaching and learning fieldwork skills:

Accessibility - they are just outside our classroom doors
Builds on children's knowledge and experience of a familiar place
Motivation - children are interested in their own place
Provides the opportunity to investigare many aspects of physical, human and environmental Geography
Provides the context for the development and application of enquiry skills, geographical vocabulary, fieldwork skills and map skills
School grounds investigations offer the possibility of authentic learning activities which have real world outcomes.

National Curriculum Aims for all pupils:

develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
- interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length